


Not Silver nor Gold

by FunnyWings



Series: Wayward AF [6]
Category: Supernatural, Wayward Sisters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Case Fic, Episode: s14e03 The Scar, F/F, Family, Family Dynamics, Friendship, Healthy Coping Mechanisms, Minor Character Death, Monster of the Week, Pre-coda, Sirens, and some unhealthy coping mechanisms, minor character death is none of the wayward ladies, supporting each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 08:37:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17097419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunnyWings/pseuds/FunnyWings
Summary: Donna Hanscum teams up with the girls and an unexpected ally to take out a siren. Claire helps Jody through a difficult time. Kaia faces down a new rival and makes a deal to help out a friend.Excerpt:The northwestern part of the United States isn’t short on wilderness and Kaia decided to make use of that. She stopped running and began to wander, taking care to make tracking her by normal means as difficult as possible. In a way, this was more familiar than anything else she’d done on Earth.It was late when she came across someone else’s abandoned camp spot. It was built out of wood, and offered meager protection from the elements. It would take tools and time Kaia didn’t have to build something underground, which she would have preferred, but this was good enough for now.She had been about to build traps before she found something that made her smile. Canned soup. It had been a while since she’d had to live off meat she caught herself, and it felt like cold comfort to eat something that had been made by a machine.It was the sound of wings that had her dropping the soup can and reaching for her spear.





	Not Silver nor Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: The siren kisses one of the characters while she is under his influence. It doesn't go further than this, but I want to make sure no one reads anything that would hurt them.

Father Hellen’s transformation had been held off twelve hours and counting when Jody finally decided they needed to move him. By that time, Donna had come to collect Patience and made Jody a promise she wouldn’t let Alex or Wendy anywhere near the church. Then she’d clasped Jody’s hands and made her promise she would be careful.

“If it’s between you and him,” she’d said, glancing over Jody’s shoulder at Father Hellen. “It needs to be you. Who else is going to play monster trivia with me?”

One shot if the answer’s Wendigo. One fucking hole in your heart if the answer is rugaru. That wasn’t funny, but Jody wasn’t in the mood to laugh anyway.

Kaia peeled off at about hour eleven, just as the sun was coming up, and came back twenty minutes later holding her spear. When Jody asked how the hell she’d gotten it back, Kaia had looked her dead in the eye and said she’d screamed and the spear had landed on the ground next to her.

“This,” Kaia said, looking at it. “Has it’s own power. Giant’s bone and tooth. The strongest thing in my world. We build temples underground out of the larger bones, to house anyone who makes it to old age. The cloaked lizards can’t cross the frame if we enchant it correctly. Then our oldest choose who will become the next hunters, and they record our histories.”

“So…” Jody had said, far past being interested in the rituals or politics of an alternate universe. “You got mad and it switched universes to be with you?”

“The thing that hurt Father Hellen might come back,” said Kaia. “I need to be ready if he does. So I can kill him.”

“Okay,” said Jody gently. Kaia’s fierce anger only seemed to sharpen when confronted with the sympathy in Jody’s voice. “But in the meantime, Dan needs you. You two are close. It might be what he needs to keep him from going over the edge.”

Kaia’s grip on her spear tightened and then loosened again. She had nodded at Jody and then followed her to the room they had put Father Hellen in. He tossed and turned in his bed, moaning and barely conscious. Kaia frowned at him and closed her eyes.

Jody watched in shock as Father Hellen’s body went still, and he began to softly snore. The bulging of his muscles deflated slightly, and he went back to his normal shape. Or almost at least. There was still something grotesque about the pinkish hue his skin had taken on, and he looked taller than normal, like his bones, too, had expanded slightly. But normal, he looked normal.

“What are you doing?” she tried to ask Kaia, but Kaia was asleep.

*****

Father Hellen smiled, his eyes closed under his sunglasses. His fingers reached out and touched the soft sand next to his towel. He soaked in the pleasant heat of the afternoon sun. All seemed right with the world.

Kaia sat cross legged next to him, dressed in her hunting robes. She’d been a fool to ever give them up, to ever think that she could manage to scrape her way out of the Bad Place to something better. There was no Good World to escape to, just more of the same with a slightly different color palette.

“I can hear you frowning,” Father Hellen murmured. Kaia didn’t say anything. “I’m dreaming, aren’t I?”

“I thought it was better than delirium,” said Kaia. “So I pulled you under.”

“And I won’t change while I’m sleeping?”

“I don’t know,” said Kaia. “But if you do, at least you won’t feel it when you burn.”

There was something off about Kaia’s voice as she said it. She sounded like she was choking. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like any of this.

“I left my family behind to be here,” she confessed. Father Hellen opened his eyes and sat up to look at her. The distant sea crashed against the shore, and Kaia flinched. “And other families. All the people I was supposed to protect. I left them, because I wanted to take care of myself. For once. I thought I’d earned it.”

“Kaia, if you’re looking for denial or criticism, or punishment from me, you won’t find it,” said Father Hellen gently. “You didn’t have a soul. You couldn’t have-”

“So what? I still knew what would happen to them. It takes time to train hunters, and we die early. The less of us there are, the more likely people from our villages get eaten. Especially the children. They’re stupid and slow, and they don’t know how to be quiet yet. How many of them died, because of me?”

“Kaia-“

“You. You’re going to die. Because of me,” said Kaia. “You think it’s a coincidence? I open a door between worlds, and an angel shows up? He found you because I made a neon sign pointing in your direction.”

Kaia closed her eyes and threw a fistful of sand in frustration. Father Hellen kept quiet, waiting for Kaia to go on and fill the empty space between them. She did, eventually.

“I never should have come here.”

Father Hellen regarded Kaia. He reached out and unclenched one of her fists so he could lightly grasp her hand.

“If I had never met you,” he said quietly. “I wouldn’t know what it feels like to have a daughter. How frustrating and wonderful and fulfilling it can be. You can’t begin to know the hole in my life that you have filled. But whether or not I make it through this, if you need to go home, I won’t begrudge you that. Not ever.”

Kaia nodded. It was only then she realized tears were streaming down her face. She hadn’t cried since she was little, when the oldest in her village had picked her as a future hunter. She’d been four. The training had started the next day, and Kaia had quickly learned that tears didn’t do anything useful. They still didn’t, but that didn’t stop the hot flow of them down her face.

“Where will you go?” Kaia asked. Father Hellen frowned at her. “When you die?”

“I’m afraid my afterlife is full of monsters,” said Father Hellen ruefully. Kaia gaped at him. He had explained the afterlife to her briefly. In generalities. Humans went to heaven or to hell, and monsters went to Purgatory.

“But if you die before you turn,” she said slowly. “Then you would go to heaven, right?”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if a rugaru is dormant, we’re born monsters. I used to hope my soul might be bound for heaven but… the more I learned about Purgatory from my books and from Jody, the more I’ve resigned myself to the truth. There was never any hope for me. You don’t need to be sad, I haven’t lost anything because of you, Kaia.”

“But that’s not fair,” said Kaia. “You spent your whole life believing, you spent so many years trying to do the right things with everything stacked against you, and you don’t even get to-“

“I’ve made peace with it.”

“Well I haven’t,” she shouted. Father Hellen didn’t say anything. “You’re not going to be able to turn back, are you?”

Father Hellen looked out at the sea.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Kaia. I never wanted you to see me like this. When you get out, tell Claire it’s time. And tell Jody… Tell Jody it was wonderful knowing her.”

Kaia could feel the edges of a nightmare trying to break into the dream on the beach. She fought them off with a flick of her consciousness. Father Hellen deserved peace. Whatever of it he could get.

“I can do it,” she said.

“I would never ask you to-“

“I need to do it,” she said. Father Hellen sighed deeply, but nodded his permission. “Before you change. Just in case you’re wrong.”

“As long as you promise me you won’t feel guilty for a second,” Father Hellen insisted. Kaia didn’t look at him. Instead she smoothed over the dream, made him forget for a while what had just happened.

Father Hellen was enjoying a day at the beach. Jody read a book next to him on a lawn chair. A false Kaia, Donna, Claire, and the other girls played volleyball in the distance. Father Hellen smiled. He was wearing an ugly Hawaiian print shirt and his eyes were closed under his sunglasses.

*****

Claire and Jody didn’t have time to move. One second Kaia was sitting in the chair beside Father Hellen’s bed, fast asleep, and the next she had snatched the spear at her side and stabbed it through the center of Father Hellen’s chest.

Father Hellen didn’t even flinch. Claire was a little awed and a lot creeped out that he died with a soft smile on his face. He seemed to shrink, too, slightly, his skin taking on it’s natural color. He looked human again.

Kaia yanked the spear out of his chest. She turned to look at Jody and Claire.

“He asked me to,” she said. “He said it was time.”

Claire felt conflicted for a moment, but a deeper instinct kicked in. One she felt she had little control over. She reached for Kaia.

Kaia brushed past her, dragging her spear behind her. Claire let her go. She was stupid to think that anything had changed. This Kaia was a murderer. Of course she’d killed Father Hellen without even blinking. Claire needed to stop focusing on the face and remember exactly who was underneath.

She couldn’t kill Kaia, but that didn’t mean she had to do the monster any favors.

*****

“Okay,” said Donna over the phone. “Yeah-huh. Okay, Jodes. Take care of yourself for a while alright? I’ll handle the girlies. We all love you very much, remember that, okay? And if you need me for one second, you call. That’s not a request. Alright, bye now.”

Patience looked up from her handiwork. She’d been trying to teach Wendy how to make Rugelach. Ronson loved them, and she’d convinced her mother to teach Patience how to make them so she’d never be in short supply. Alex had joined in after a while when the stress of waiting got to be too much for her. She now had a smudge of flour on her nose, something Patience had yet to mention to her.

Thinking about Ronson, however, led Patience to remember something very important that had been lost in the mad shuffle of saving Wendy and Donna from an alternate universe, followed by coming back to a priest who looked like his skin was melting off. Something she had been not thinking about in the hopes that she could will it into going smoothly and preserve one of the few things from her old life she still really cared about.

“Ronson,” Patience said. Everyone stared at her. “Ronson’s coming. Today. Shit.”

Patience lunged for her phone which had been charging for the past half hour. Five missed messages from Ronson let her know that she had maybe five minutes before her best friend showed up at Jody Mills house to find her burning a priest in the backyard. Patience dialed as fast as her fingers would move.

“C’mon, pick up, pick up, pick up-“

“Hey!” said Ronson. “I thought you fell off a cliff or something. I’ve been texting you all day, what gives?”

“Uh, Jody just… had a serious family emergency,” said Patience, thinking on her feet. “And then my phone died, and… It’s been crazy-“

“Oh,” said Ronson, sounding deflated. “I’m almost at your place, but if you need me to go home…?”

“No!” said Patience. “Um, just pull over. I’m staying with Jody’s friend Donna. I’ll give you the address.”

“You’re sure?” asked Ronson, more hopefully. “I don’t want to distract from anything important. If there’s some kind of emergency…”

“Jody’s arranging a funeral,” said Patience. “But I’m not making you drive home after you came all this way just to see me. Besides, I missed you a little. who else is going to bug me about Jason from gym’s abs. Like I’m supposed to care.”

“It’s Jeff, and honestly girl, get a pair of eyes,” said Ronson. “Also, I hear he’s going to Princeton, and he had a thing for you in the third grade, so I wouldn’t turn my nose up just yet. He has to be smart if he’s going Princeton. He could be your trophy husband.”

“Yeah, see? This is the kind of pointless small talk I’ve been missing in my life,” said Patience. It felt so fucking normal not to be talking about death and destruction and monsters. Not that Patience didn’t feel guilty about being so willing to cast off her second life when poor Father Hellen had just died and Jody was a mess, but… God, she needed to see Ronson. She just needed to. So she rattled off the address and avoided the incredulous looks Alex and Wendy were giving her. “See you soon. Bye.”

Patience hung up. Donna spoke up first.

“Is it really the best idea to have your friend here? Right now?” Donna asked gently. “We just got a visit from an archangel. You understand that’s worse than a visit from a drill happy dentist the day after Halloween, right?”

“It’ll be fine,” said Patience. “We just won’t talk about monsters for forty eight hours. I’m sure we can manage that.”

“Uh huh,” said Alex skeptically, exchanging a glance with Wendy. Wendy shrugged, and went back to folding her pastries. So at least Wendy had her back, thought Patience.

“What could go wrong?” Wendy murmured to herself. And never mind about having her back, way to jinx it Wendy.

*****

Father Hellen’s body didn’t burn like a regular person. It went up in flames like they’d doused him with dynamite instead of just gasoline. Hazard of being a rugaru Claire supposed. She was lucky she’d escaped with her eyebrows.

Jody stood next to her stone-faced. Claire cleared her throat.

“I, uh,” Claire started. “I know he meant a lot. To you.”

“Claire.”

“And that’s cool. Silver fox thing, I totally don’t get it but that’s not what I’m trying to- Look. When I was on my last legs after Kaia,” Claire stopped to take a deep, steadying breath. “After the real Kaia died… You were there for me. Let me be here for you, okay?”

“We should put out the fire,” said Jody. “Someone might call the fire department. They’ll find the bones.”

“Jody,” Claire said, trying to be gentle about it. “There aren’t going to be any bones. Rugarus are just… flammable.”

“Okay,” said Jody. “Excuse me, I think I need to go throw up.”

Jody walked away and waved Claire off when she tried to follow. Deciding to let Jody have her space, Claire took out the fire extinguisher and doused the pyre they’d built for Father Hellen. He’d be reported missing in the next couple of days. Claire didn’t envy Jody having to deal with that report when it got filed at the police station.

*****

Wendy had to admit she was squinting a little at Ronson and Patience’s friendship.

On the one hand, far be it from her to decode the intricacies of (probably) straight women’s behavioral patterns, but there was something almost worshipful about the way Ronson looked at Patience. Wendy was ninety percent sure that was the way she’d looked at her best friend her freshman year of high school, and that was very shortly before she’d figured out she was pretty fucking gay so… Still. It was none of her business if Patience’s bestie from back home secretly had the hots for Patience, especially since Patience seemed incredibly oblivious to it and not at all reciprocally interested.

But if she happened to tell Alex her theory, well, that wasn’t technically meddling was it?

“Do you think,” Wendy whispered to Alex as they watched Ronson snag another Rugelach from the plate of pastries they’d made that afternoon. “That maybe Ronson has a crush on Patience?”

“Yes,” said Alex, sounding bored. Wendy turned to look at her wide eyed. Alex looked back, her expression changing into something more interested. “The real question is… why do you care?”

“I mean, I don’t care… care,” said Wendy. Alex narrowed her eyes.

“But you do,” she said. She smiled her scientific smile, the one she smiled when she announced that she’d gotten to observe grad students cutting open a cadaver and then going into detail about exactly what that looked like. Patience had had to lay down the law to stop her from doing at meal times. “But you don’t like Patience. Because everyone and their mother knows that you like Claire.”

“Not everyone knows-“

“Everyone. But that’s just it,” said Alex. “You can’t figure out if Claire likes you, so you’re projecting you’re insecurities onto Ronson. Classic move.”

“Are you psychoanalyzing me? That’s low, Alex,” said Wendy. “I can’t believe I was trying to gossip with you. How dare you? Maybe you’re the one who’s in love with Claire. Ever think of that?”

Alex snorted.

“Did that even sound convincing to you?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Wendy sighed, shoulders caving inwards.

“I need a distraction?” she offered up. Alex smiled at her, a real smile this time, not a dissection smile.

“Okay,” she said. “In that case… Patience has no fucking clue it’s not normal for your best friend to talk about what a glowing Amazon you are. I mean if I have to hear Ronson compliment her one more time-“

“I know! I’ve had girlfriends who were less nice to me,” said Wendy. “Do you think there’s hope?”

“With Patience? I don’t think so,” said Alex. “She just doesn’t really seem interested in anybody you know?”

Wendy shrugged. She supposed Alex was right. Still it would be nice to see something work out for once. Because the more Wendy looked at how she felt about Claire, and about how Claire might actually feel about her, the more she felt like she was being incredibly stupid carrying a torch for her.

*****

“How could I be so stupid?” Jody muttered to herself, sitting on her couch. Claire was sat next to her, but Jody had lost track of her internal filter a few drinks ago. “Every time I… Claire, I think there might be something wrong with me.”

“Join the club,” said Claire, staring moodily at her own beer. “First time I ever… I ever fall in love and look what happens! She dies and gets replaced by an evil twin. When did my life become a soap opera.”

“First love strikes quick,” said Jody. “My husband, we were high school sweethearts. I never thought I’d love anyone else. I guess that’s a good thing, right?”

Claire looked at Jody. Jody was staring into the middle distance.

“I can still get my heart broken,” she said quietly. “It’s the little things, huh?”

“To Father Hellen,” Claire said, quickly grabbing another beer for both of them. Jody took it and raised her glass with Claire.

“To Dan,” she said.

Just as they clinked glasses, an urgent knocking sounded at the door. Jody made to get up, but Claire stopped her.

“I’ll get it,” said Claire. “Least I can do.”

Jody didn’t argue. She was too tired and sad to argue. So instead she sat and kept drinking.

Claire made her way to the door and opened it. On the front step stood a man wearing a button up and tie, but not the nice kind. It was the kind that looked okay enough to wear to church or to your job if you didn’t have a lot of money. At first Claire didn’t recognize him, but then it clicked.

“You’re Patience’s stalker,” she said. “I mean her teacher that her dad paid to stalk her.”

“He didn’t pay me,” said Conrad Jones, obviously outraged at the accusation. “He asked me to keep an eye on his daughter to make sure she was safe. As a favor.”

“You’re doing a great job. Y’know, considering Patience isn’t even here,” said Claire. Conrad clutched a hand to his forehead and then sighed.

“Are you drunk?” he asked.

“No… Maybe,” said Claire, not caring if she sounded belligerent. “Someone died. Seemed like the right thing to do.”

“And Jody is…?” Conrad asked, trying to look around Claire. Claire stuck her arm out blocking him from getting in.

“She’s grieving. What do you need?” asked Claire. Conrad seemed to realize he wasn’t getting in without a fight and wisely gave up.

“I’ve got a case,” he said. “About half an hour from here. There have been some murder-suicides about half an hour from here. Common denominator is they visited a local night club before hand and their hormone levels have been shot to hell. The coroners think it’s a new drug on the market causing psychotic breaks, but I went over the case and I’m thinking it’s looking more like-“

“Siren,” said Claire, excitement lighting up her expression. Then she looked over her shoulder at Jody. She’d promised to be there for her mom, and she wasn’t going to fuck that up. Even for an interesting case. “So you need back up.”

“Experienced back up,” Conrad said. Claire raised an eyebrow. “Look I’ve been watching-“

“Spying.”

“Watching,” Conrad stressed. “Your operation, and it seems like Jody is the reasonable one and you’re a loose cannon. And everyone else? Hardly hunters. Sirens are tricky. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. Especially not Patience. James may not be in the life, but he still has a decent right hook, I can tell you that from experience.”

Claire frowned. On the one hand, she could try to hook this guy up with the hunter operation Sam Winchester had running at the moment. On the other, it would take a while to send one of their guys out this way and sirens moved on quickly. They got bored easily. Claire had lost one on two separate occasions by showing up a day too late. When a creature can look like anyone, it’s hard to follow them out of town, and sirens are good at getting far enough away that the next set of murders don’t look related.

“We’ve got a friend. Donna Hanscum,” said Claire, thinking on her feet. “I’ll give you her address, then you can give her a visit. See if she’s experienced enough for you.”

Conrad nodded his thanks, and took down Donna’s address. Then he was off.

“Who was that?” asked Jody when Claire walked back to the couch.

“No one important,” said Claire. Jody raised an eyebrow. “You don’t need to worry about it right now. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Jody. “Thanks for, uh… thanks for sitting up with me Claire. And for helping with…”

“I’ll always be here when you need me,” said Claire. “It’s what family does.”

Jody nodded and managed her first smile since Father Hellen had died.

“Do you think he’d want us to pray for him?” Jody asked, looking at the window and up at the stars.

“You can,” said Claire.

*****

“Hey!” shouted Kaia, looking up at the sky. “Where are you, you murderous birds. Answer me!”

Kaia screamed again, letting off a pulse of energy that whistled through the air around her. She heard a snapping of a branch behind her and whirled around to see a woman. She knew immediately that she wasn’t looking at the angel who’d killed Father Hellen (or killed the human part of him at least). She was too bruised and battered to be the powerful thing that Father Hellen had described.

“We need to get you away from here,” said the woman. Kaia held up her spear. She was done listening.

“I’m not going anywhere until I kill him,” said Kaia. The woman sighed.

“My name is Anael,” she said, softer this time. “What’s yours?”

“Kaia,” she bit out, still pointing her spear at Anael’s throat.

“Okay, Kaia, listen to me. You can’t kill him. No one can. But whatever you’re doing right now, that’s letting off a lot of energy and I’m worried he’s not distracted enough to not notice,” said Anael. “You might be our best chance at incapacitating him, at some point. But not now.”

“Words are coming out of your mouth. None of them are useful to me,” said Kaia. Anael seemed to focus very hard for a second. Then she startled slightly as though someone had rung a bell inside her head. Kaia narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “What?”

“You’re worried,” she said slowly. “About your friend. Father Hellen? Michael told me he visited him. One of his more interesting stops.”

“Interesting,” said Kaia flatly. “You want me to kill you, too?”

“No, I want you to listen,” said Anael. “I can’t bring him back, but I can do the next best thing.”

“And what’s that?” asked Kaia.

“Appeal his case,” said Anael. “Argue for Heaven’s dominion over his soul.”

Kaia’s spear lowered slightly.

“You can do that?” she asked. It sounded too good to be true, and Kaia was more than wary about it. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to lay low,” said Anael. “And when the time is right, you strike. If you’re as powerful as I think you are, you can weaken Michael, and by then hopefully we’ll have found something with the power to finish him off.”

“And then what?”

“And then,” said a second voice, followed by a figure dressed in black emerging from behind a tree. She brought with her an elegant scythe that Kaia felt drawn to. The woman then once again caught her attention. “You go home. You don’t belong in this universe. Everything you do, every breath you take is throwing the very basis of it out of balance.”

Kaia thought it over.

“Father Hellen,” she said. “If you can’t get him what he deserves, I’ll agree to all of it.”

“If he’s lived a good life,” said Anael. Kaia wasn’t worried about that. She knew he had. Possibly a singularly good life.

“There are rules for this sort of thing,” said the woman in black. “Unbendable rules. But in this I can see the rare grey area. A dispute in custody, one might say.”

“Fine,” said Kaia. “What do I need to do right now?”

The woman in black looked her right in the eye.

“You need to run.”

*****

Patience answered the door to see her old math teacher standing on Donna’s front step. It took all her will power to not just close the door in his face.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed at him. “I told you to stop following me.”

“I’m not. I’m here for Donna Hanscum,” said Conrad. “Claire recommended her. I didn’t know you would be here.”

“I have a friend here,” Patience said, feeling the panic start to set in. “She doesn’t know.”

“Doesn’t know what?” asked Ronson, sidling up next to Patience to see who was at the door. “Patience you would have told me if you were into older men, right? Because that’s kinda yikes.”

“No!” Patience and Conrad exclaimed at the same time, equally grossed out.

“That I… I got a B in his math class,” said Patience thinking on her feet. Ronson raised her eyebrows. “I’m embarrassed. I didn’t want you to know.”

“I think talking to her about it a month after she graduates is maybe a little too late,” said Ronson, directing her attention to Conrad.

“That’s not… He and Donna are dating,” said Patience. Conrad rolled his eyes at her when Ronson wasn’t looking.

“I thought Donna just moved here?” said Ronson, frowning.

“So did I,” Conrad said, coming into to save Patience from the corner she’d painted herself in. “I got a job before Donna, so I moved out earlier.”

“Why didn’t Donna just move in with you?” Ronson asked, squinting at him in suspicion.

“Wow. Little miss twenty questions. I… I don’t believe in living together before marriage,” said Conrad. It wasn’t super obvious he was struggling to look for an excuse, but it was obvious enough that Patience decided to move things along.

“We should let him go catch up with Donna. And we can go do things upstairs. Or just not here.”

Patience had to practically drag Ronson away from the door. Even then, Ronson aimed a suspicious look over her shoulder towards Conrad before disappearing up the stairs.

*****

Donna only had to look over Conrad’s research once before she was fairly certain he was right. They were going to be chasing a siren. There was only one problem.

“You know what kind of club this is right?” she asked, pointing at the name in the news reports: Rainbeau. Conrad frowned at her.

“What do you mean?”

“And that’s what I thought,” said Donna. She entered the name into her web browser, scrolled past the articles about the recent drug deaths associated with the club and then clicked on the club’s home page. Conrad got the picture pretty quickly. “Gay club, aimed at the twenties crowd. Either of us would stick out like a sore thumb.”

“What are you suggesting?” Conrad asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew. Donna was suggesting the exact opposite of what he wanted.

“Wendy and Alex have helped on hunts before,” she said. “They’ve got sharp eyes and they know not to accept drinks from strangers.”

“I’m asking for your help, not theirs,” he said, snatching his research back from her.

“You practically scream hunter,” said Donna critically. “I could tell you were carrying by the way you walk, and you are not approachable. Even if you tried to dress down to look younger, I can tell from spending five minutes with you that you’ve got resting constipated face.”

“I do not,” said Conrad, sounding scandalized. Donna narrowed her eyes at him.

“Uh huh,” she said. “I’ll admit that Wendy is still getting her sea legs, but Alex knows how to handle herself. They’ll make the case easier.”

Conrad sighed deeply, but nodded.

“Fine. But not Patience, and definitely not the civilian.”

“Patience would be able to see an attack coming,” said Donna. “She could be a real asset.”

“This is my case. Patience isn’t coming,” said Conrad. Donna bit her lip, but figured compromising was the best idea for now. If they couldn’t find the siren tonight, they could revisit the issue. If they did find the siren, then Patience obviously didn’t need to come after all.

“Alright,” she said. “So give me the run down. What exactly is your plan?”

*****

Kaia ran.

She had nothing on her but her spear and her hunting robes, but that didn’t matter. She survived in a world much harsher than this one, and she had no plans to stop surviving. Not if it would cost Father Hellen his spot in paradise, and not if there was a chance she could go home and make things right. Take responsibility again for the people she had left behind.

She was miles away from where she had met Anael and Death, the second of whom Kaia only knew because her other self had whispered the answer from within her. It was the scythe that gave it away, she supposed. Symbolic, and not at all subtle.

The northwestern part of the United States isn’t short on wilderness and Kaia decided to make use of that. She stopped running and began to wander, taking care to make tracking her by normal means as difficult as possible. In a way, this was more familiar than anything else she’d done on Earth.

It was late when she came across someone else’s abandoned camp spot. It was built out of wood, and offered meager protection from the elements. It would take tools and time Kaia didn’t have to build something underground, which she would have preferred, but this was good enough for now.

She had been about to build traps before she found something that made her smile. Canned soup. It had been a while since she’d had to live off meat she caught herself, and it felt like cold comfort to eat something that had been made by a machine. It felt like a small way to commemorate her time with Father Hellen. So she opened the can with the tip of her spear and took one of the spoons the campers had left in the dirt and rubbed it clean on her hunting robes. Then she ate.

It was the sound of wings that had her dropping the soup can and reaching for her spear.

“I didn’t come here to fight,” said the man. He was dressed in nice clothes and an old fashioned hat, but there was something familiar about the face. Dean Winchester, Kaia realized, the part inside her that was that old Kaia supplying the information. He looked different. Frightening. “Not if I don’t have to.”

And he’d flown. This was the angel who had murdered Father Hellen.

“This face you know,” he continued, pointing to his own menacing mug. “But I’m just borrowing it. We haven’t met. But I sensed you ever since I came to this world.”

Kaia’s grip on her spear tightened. She’d known it already, that it was her power that had led an angel to Father Hellen. Still, it hurt worse to hear it spoken so plainly.

“You’re like me. You bleed new energy,” he said. Then he pointed to her spear. “And so does that.”

And it would. Kaia had dragged it through another dimension to be with her twice now. Giants’ bones soaked in massive amounts of energy and power from their surroundings. It was what supported the Giants’ massive size. Or so the theorists and mathematicians (translating loosely) on her world guessed.

“I’m here to make you an offer. There’s a war coming and I’m building an army. You can join my side, the winning side, if you give me that spear,” he said next. Kaia just glared at him. “Or you could fight, definitely lose, probably die, and I’ll just take it.”

Unconsciously, Kaia took a step back. The angel smiled at her smugly, beginning to advance.

“So wild one,” he went on. “What’s it going to be?”

For a second Kaia considered saying something. Then she remembered that this was the thing that had killed Father Hellen. He didn’t deserve such consideration. Besides, the people on her world had never really been talkers.

Kaia lunged.

*****

Wendy had known that Ronson was going to sneak out after them before it had even happened. The girl was just as smart as Patience was, and twice as mischievous. It didn’t surprise her that at around midnight when the club started picking up traffic, Alex elbowed her in the side and pointed towards the door where Ronson had just walked in with a frazzled Patience following behind her.

“Should I go ask?” said Wendy. Alex nodded, going back to scanning the room. Wendy lifted herself off of the bar stool, snagging her Shirley Temple (screw the drinking age) and walking over to where Ronson was trying to pull a fast one with a fake ID. She brushed past Ronson with a quick hello and a wink and then stood next to an uncomfortable looking Patience.

“What are you guys doing here?” Wendy asked pleasantly. Patience glared over her at Ronson, who’d managed to convince the bartender to give her a beer.

“She overheard you and Donna talking, and she wanted to see what Mr. Jones was up to,” Patience muttered. “I couldn’t stop her from sneaking out, so I figured it’s better to keep an eye on her.”

“Fair enough,” said Wendy. “Have a little fun while you’re here Patience. You never have fun.”

“Ugh, you sound like Claire,” said Patience. “How am I supposed to have fun when I know there is a psycho monster here who wants to eat somebody.”

“Ask someone to dance.”

Patience looked out onto the dance floor.

“Not really interested in anyone grinding on me, thanks,” she said. Which was about when she must have caught sight of Ronson letting some girl grind on her. Patience actually smiled at that.

“So is Ronson…?” Wendy asked. Patience shrugged.

“I don’t think so,” said Patience, rolling her eyes. “She’s like that with the volleyball girls, too. But trust me, she never stops talking about boys. She could be bi, but I honestly don’t think so. She would have told me.”

“She might not have if she has a huge crush on you,” said Wendy. Patience choked on nothing.

“She does not,” said Patience. “Believe me on that one. I am not her type. I’m way too type A.”

“Whatever you say,” said Wendy. “And don’t worry about the hunt. Conrad did a spell. Whoever the siren focuses on will light up either my glow stick or Alex’s. Then we just have to watch them for the night.”

“So you’ve been wandering around waving glow sticks at people all night?” asked Patience. “Easy hunt.”

“That’s the idea,” said Wendy. “Once we identify the victim, we just wait until they leave with someone and then call in reinforcements. Easy peasy.”

Wendy stopped talking when she saw Patience’s face had gone slack. There was no point trying to talk to her when she was in the middle of a vision. Instead, Wendy waved her glow stick at a couple of cute girls who passed her. One of them waved back, and Wendy smiled extra wide in her direction.

Patience came back to herself, her eyes wide and scared.

“What’d you see?” asked Wendy. Patience snatched the glow stick from her hand. “Hey!”

Patience marched off and pointed the glow stick at Ronson, who had finished dancing and was sitting next to Alex at the bar chatting. Alex saw what Patience was doing and did the same. Both glow sticks lit up.

“Shit,” said Alex, looking alarmed. She calmed herself as quickly as she could. By the time Wendy had caught up to where Patience was standing, Alex already had a game plan.

“Wendy, why don’t you hang out with Ronson. Patience and I need to go have a quick conversation with, uh, Donna,” said Alex. “Be back soon.”

Ronson frowned after Patience and Alex, then turned to Wendy.

“Is there something you all aren’t telling me?” she asked frankly. Which, fuck, how was Wendy supposed to answer that?

“Uh, no.”

Ronson didn’t look any less suspicious. This was going to be a long night.

*****

Alex dragged Patience out of the club and around the corner to where Conrad and Donna were waiting in the car with weapons ready. Conrad was out of the car before they’d gotten all the way there.

“I thought we all agreed that Patience wasn’t coming,” he said.

“For the record, I do not want to be here,” said Patience. “But I couldn’t stop Ronson from following you guys and I didn’t want her in danger. Which she already is.”

“It’s true,” said Alex. “The spell worked. Guess who made these guys glow?”

“The civilian,” sighed Conrad, just as Donna was exiting the car.

“What happened?” asked Donna. “You all look so grim.”

“I had a vision,” said Patience. “Ronson was kissing this… thing. It was grotesque.”

“Who did the siren look like?” asked Conrad, suddenly very interested. Patience frowned at him. “Sirens make themselves look like their victim’s perfect other half. If we know what that is, we can narrow it down and get to the siren before it gets to Ronson.”

“The siren looked like a hybrid between a corpse and vacuum cleaner,” said Patience. Conrad groaned in frustration.

“You must have seen the vision in a reflection,” he muttered. “Sirens don’t drop the illusion ever.”

Patience frowned. She was pretty sure her vision hadn’t been in a reflection. She was about to say this when Donna’s phone started ringing. She answered it and put it on speaker.

“Uh, so good news, bad news,” said Wendy. “Good news is I’m following our reaper. Bad news is Ronson got… got. I don’t know how. I watched her drink, and I didn’t see her kiss him-“

“What does the siren look like?” asked Conrad.

“Um, skinny white guy. Kind of gangly. Glasses,” said Wendy. “Not threatening looking, which is super weird when you know he’s a monster. They’re walking past Main and Eleventh. Get here ASAP, I don’t have anything that will kill this dude.”

Wendy hung up. Everyone looked at each other.

“I guess Ronson didn’t have a crush on Patience after all,” said Alex, sounding bemused. And worried. “We should go help.”

Conrad grimly passed out additional bronze daggers, all of which were already covered in what looked suspiciously like blood. He hesitated before handing one to Patience.

“Don’t get hurt,” he said, before passing it to her, hilt first.

They all took off running toward Main Street.

*****

Kaia had been knocked to the ground, her spear thrown a few feet away from her. The angel smiled down at her, completely self assured in his victory. He didn’t know who he was fighting.

Kaia had defeated a Giant. She could handle an angel.

She kicked out at him, surprising him and knocking him down to the forest floor. It bought her enough time to reach her spear, whirl around and stab him through the arm. The angel shouted in pain, and Kaia felt nothing but satisfaction.

For the first time, the angel looked up at her and there was fear in his eyes.

Kaia pulled her spear back, ready to stab once again and end his pathetic life, but before she could there was a flap of wings, and the angel had disappeared.

“Coward,” she muttered to the wind. With nothing else to do, she sat down again and went back to eating her soup. So much for laying low, she supposed.

The first monster wouldn’t find her for two more days. She didn’t know this yet. She stayed put because she hoped the angel would return, and that she could end him.

*****

The first thing the siren did was bring Wendy under his influence.

The monster knew he was being followed, which became quickly obvious when he had a perfect trap set for their small group of hunters.

Wendy had scraped up her arm and lain crying in the street until Donna had spotted her. Then, the second Donna had rushed to her side, Wendy had swiped out at her aunt with a knife. Conrad had rushed to help Donna and restrain Wendy as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Ronson knocked out Alex with a hit to the head, and the only thing that stopped her from getting a killing blow in was Patience grabbing her from behind and dragging her away from Alex’s unconscious body. Ronson struggled the entire time, and Patience could barely keep her from breaking free. Ronson’s nails dug into Patience’s arms, and Jesus that fucking hurt.

It was about then, that Patience caught sight of the siren. She screamed, and let go of Ronson in her horror. The siren was something straight out of a nightmare, and she wanted to be sick when she saw Ronson run to the thing, and kiss it.

“Oh God,” said Patience. “When I said you have terrible taste in guys, this is not what I meant.”

“She’s just jealous,” said the creature to Ronson. “Because she’s never loved anyone. She doesn’t understand us.”

“How can you not see what he is?” Patience demanded. “Ronson, that thing isn’t human.”

It was hard to tell, but the siren looked a little perturbed at this statement. He walked closer to Patience, keeping Ronson in front of him as a human shield. Patience slowly backed away until her back was against a wall and there was no where else to go.

From about three feet away, the siren spit. Some of it ended up in Patience’s mouth, which she had opened to shout for help.

“That is so gross,” said Patience. “I am going to brush my teeth for hours when I get home.”

“You don’t feel anything at all, do you?” the siren asked. Patience didn’t know what to say to that. “Kill your friend for me.”

“What the fuck?” Patience shouted back at the siren. He shook his head in amazement.

“Incredible,” the siren muttered. “You don’t… You don’t love me. Why don’t you love me?”

“Let Ronson go,” said Patience. The siren did so, barely sparing a glance for his previous victim. He advanced on Patience, looking almost mad now. Obsessed with solving something he couldn’t understand.

It wasn’t long until Patience realized that the siren was going to try to kiss her, and the thought of it made her want to vomit. This was about the point when she remembered she had a pointy thing that would be very good at stopping the sickening creature from getting any closer to her.

She stabbed up with the bronze dagger into the siren’s rib cage. He hissed, his spindly grey fingers still reaching for her face. Then, he fell to the ground dead.

Patience dropped the knife. When she looked up, it was to see Ronson a few feet away, staring down at the hideous monster on the street and then up at Patience.

“There’s definitely something you’re not telling me,” said Ronson, before immediately passing out on the concrete.

So much for forty eight hours of normality.

*****

Claire woke up the next morning with a headache. Jody was already up, making coffee, and talking to Donna on the phone.

“And everyone’s alright?” Jody said. “Well, good, it sounds like you and the girls handled it. And Conrad.”

Jody paused a moment, listening to Donna as she buttered a piece of toast for herself.

“Uh huh. Have you decided who’s giving Ronson the talk yet?” she asked. “Alright, keep me updated. And have a good first day at work.”

Jody hung up the phone and started eating. Claire rolled off of the sofa and stared at Jody. She didn’t understand how she could be acting so normal.

“You’re… going into work?” Claire asked. Jody nodded. “Why?”

“Because feeding myself and four extra mouths is hard if I’m not making money?” said Jody.

“Well, yeah, but why today?” said Claire. “You can take a little more time-“

“I actually really want to go to work,” said Jody. Claire frowned. She didn’t get it. “Having structure helps with grief. I had my chance to wallow. I’m good now, Claire. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“But everything can’t just be alright,” said Claire. “Aren’t… Aren’t you angry?”

“Yeah,” said Jody. “But that’s not going to help in the short term. I’m good at my job, and my job is helping people. That’s going to be the best way to make me feel better. Let’s face it, I can’t… I can’t do anything about Michael. But what I can do is keep making the world I live in a better place. I’m pretty sure that’s what Dan would have wanted, if he had the chance to say anything about it.”

“But it’s not fair what happened to him.”

“No, it never is,” said Jody with a deep sigh. “But you can’t stop living just because life isn’t fair, you know?”

Claire didn’t have anything to say to that.

“I’m proud of you, by the way,” said Jody. “Giving up revenge like that. It’s not easy. I know the situation with Kaia is complicated, and I know you’re angry. But the Kaia you just met? She’s a scared girl, just like that other Kaia was. It’s not fair what happened. It’s never going to be fair. But killing her wouldn’t bring the other Kaia back.”

Claire knew that. But she also knew that she didn’t like it.

Jody smiled a little sadly and leaned down to kiss Claire on the forehead.

“I’ll see you after work okay?” she said. “We can talk about it then.”

As it happened, they wouldn’t talk about it then. Because moments later Death visited them both and drew the memories of the new Kaia from their minds and stored them where they could no longer reach them.

And, unable to remember the exact source of her ire, this just made Claire all the angrier.

*****

“So,” said Patience, sitting next to Ronson. “Monsters are real. Like… all of them.”

“Uh huh,” said Ronson. “You’ve already lost me.”

“Remember when I showed up to school with all of those bruises?” asked Patience. “It was because a wraith tried to, um, eat me.”

“Like one of those things out of Lord of the Rings.”

“Not at all like that actually. He looked like a normal dude, he just had these weird spikes in his hands. And he was strong,” said Patience. “And the reason I kept spacing out during class afterwards was because I was having visions. Of the future.”

This was the first thing Patience said that Ronson seemed to take in.

“No wonder your reflexes are so good,” she muttered. “You know this is all crazy right? Like next level crazy.”

“I know,” said Patience. “But it’s my life now. And I thought I could put it on pause, and I’m sorry I was wrong. I never told you about any of this because I didn’t want you in the cross fire. You’re the one part of my life that was still normal.”

Ronson didn’t say anything for a long time.

“I don’t… We can still be friends right?” she asked hesitantly. “If I don’t want to be involved in all of… this.”

“I want to say yes,” said Patience. “Really badly. Because you’re the best friend I ever had and I miss you. But I can’t guarantee this stuff won’t happen when I spend time with you. And now that you know… you might notice things you didn’t before. See monsters because they’re there.”

Ronson mulled this over.

“Too bad there isn’t a button I can just press,” she muttered. “Erase all of that.”

“Yeah,” said Patience. “I wish.”

“Well,” said Ronson. “I guess I can be okay with that. Never ask me for help with a monster thing. But if I come over and something comes up, I can deal. You’re more important than pretending this didn’t happen.”

Patience nodded.

“Hey, you don’t have a crush on me do you?” she asked. Ronson laughed.

“You wish,” she said. “No. Girls aren’t my thing. Not that it’s a problem if they’re you’re thing, just… you know.”

“Alex and Wendy were just… weird about us,” said Patience. “Guess neither of them have had a best friend before.”

“I don’t think it’s that,” said Ronson thoughtfully. “I mean, I look up to you a lot. You always seemed so confident. Like you didn’t have a doubt in the world that you could do anything you set your mind to. Not everyone has that, a best friend and a freaking role model in one.”

“I am far from a role model,” said Patience. Ronson raised an eyebrow.

“You fight monsters. You’re literally a superhero,” said Ronson. “Which again, super cool. But also never invite me to anything monster related.”

“I think I can manage that,” said Patience. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too,” said Ronson, hugging Patience tightly and then letting go. “But I have to head out if I’m going to make it home before dark. So I’ll text you later okay?”

They said their goodbyes, and Patience waved Ronson out of the door. Then she joined Alex on Donna’s couch.

“So,” said Alex. “You want to talk about it?”

“It went well, actually,” said Patience. “I mean, I think she got her freaking out done last night. Ronson is actually ridiculously stable.”

“I meant about stabbing a siren, but I’m glad to hear you worked things out with her,” said Alex, and she genuinely sounded like this was the case. Patience shrugged.

“Not the first monster I’ve killed,” she said. Alex gave her a pointed look. “Okay. It was gross and scary and I didn’t like it. But I’m alright.”

“Good,” said Alex. “And about the other thing?”

“What other thing?”

“The siren infected you and it didn’t do anything. I’ve met sirens before. Their hit rate is usually one hundred,” said Alex. Patience shrugged.

“I guess this one was just defective,” she said.

“And you could see what the siren really looked like,” said Alex. “Is that a psychic thing?”

Patience shrugged.

“I don’t know,” said Patience. Alex seemed to be getting at something. “Is there something you’re trying to tell me?”

“Um,” said Alex. “No.”

Patience waited. It didn’t take long.

“There’s this guy I met on one of these online forums. He’s an ex-hunter. He spent some time hunting sirens, and he could see their faces as well,” said Alex. “Their real faces.”

“Was he a psychic?” asked Patience expectantly.

“No,” said Alex. “He was asexual.”

“Huh,” said Patience, not sure what to make of that.

“Part of a siren’s power is derived from sexual desire. Not necessarily focused on anything, just the existence of sexual desire within a person,” Alex continued slowly. “So if it’s not there, their powers lose a lot of their punch. There's stuff in the lore about kids being able to see them too, and people think that's probably why.”

“And you think I’m…?”

“I don’t think anything,” Alex hastened to say. “I just… I thought I’d give you the information, and if it resonated, cool. If not, it’s probably a psychic thing. No big deal either way.”

“Okay,” said Patience, feeling a little like her head was spinning. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay,” said Alex. “Want to watch some TV?”

Patience nodded. Alex turned on the television, and soon enough Wendy joined the both of them. The spent the morning laughing at reruns of old Disney shows, and Patience thought about what Alex had said. And thought about it and thought about it.

*****

There was no one left alive who remembered Kaia from the Bad Place.

Well, no one except Patience.

Billie had left those particular memories in tact, if unreachable, because she needed someone to tell Claire what would happen if she were to kill Kaia. For now it was safest that they did not know she existed, but Billie had no illusions about the fact they would learn about her presence in this world again.

And so if Claire got it into her head to rid the world of one of the few people who could kill Michael, Patience could tell her exactly what would happen to Wendy Hanscum should she do so.

It was a neat little plan. Billie still didn’t like her odds of all of this working out.

*****

Daniel Hellen’s mother and father used to take him to the beach when he was young.

He would swim out past the waves, where he couldn’t stand. Despite his parents warnings, he preferred the cold rush of deeper water to the sun warmed shallows. He was in the ocean now, his skinny eight year old arms, treading beneath him as he floated at the surface.

Happy memories flowed beneath him, within his grasp. But for the moment, he was most content where he was, a little boy grinning up at the afternoon sun, not knowing his father would soon die at the hands of a hunter. Not knowing his mother would wonder all her days what happened to her husband, and would die none the wiser. Not knowing that he would stare down his father’s fate and survive it, and go on living and loving and regretting only to succumb to a similar fate over twenty years later than anyone coud have guessed.

"How does the saying go?" thought Anael as she sealed the door on his heaven. "Ignorance is bliss."


End file.
